Research Methods Exam 3

Three problems associated with Archival Research

• Selective Deposit

• Selective Survival

• Spurious relationships

Selective Deposit

The tendency for certain types of information to be preserved in archives while others are not, which can skew research findings.

Selective Survival

The phenomenon where only certain records or data types remain available over time, while others fade away, potentially biasing research conclusions.

Spurious relationships

Connections between variables that are misleading due to the influence of an external factor, resulting in an apparent correlation that does not reflect a true cause-and-effect relationship.

Archival Research

Public/Private documents describing the activities of individuals, records of different events

P-value is greater than .05

Fail to reject the null → Not significant

Same participants in each group, across three conditions ?

Repeated Measures ANOVA

ANOVA tells us

that the means differ

however it can not tell us which means differ without a post-hoc test

Interactions

What is more important, Main effects or Interactions?

Interaction

When the effect of one IV depends on the different levels of a second IV 

Non-parallel lines -→ they cross at a specific number 

Main Effect

The mean differences among the levels of ONE IV/Factor

Assessing the impact of an IV on its own

The p value is less than .05

Reject the Null → statistically significant

Dependent samples T-test

Repeated measures T-test

within-subjects T-test

A t-test with the same participants is called?

T-test

When comparing two means, which statistical analysis do you use ?

When comparing three or more means which statistical analysis do you use?

ANOVA

If you give a survey, administer treatment, give the same survey, what survey design is this?

pre-test, post-test

2 IV’s and each IV has 3 levels

If you have a 3×3 design, how many IV’s and how many levels

When each participant is measured more than once, this is a _________ design

Repeated Measures

One-way design

examines only one IV

Factorial/Complex design

Examines two or more IV’s

Most common type of observation used in psychological science?

Naturalistic with observation

Contrived

The observation of behavior in settings that are pre-arranged, and likely to produce the desired behavior, specifically for observing and recording behavior, are ______ settings

Benefits of Repeated Measures Designs

• No need to balance individual differences across conditions

• Fewer participants needed 

• Convenient and efficient

• More sensitive design

Between-Subjects Design

Contains different people in each group

Within-Subjects Design

Contains the same people in each group

1. Increase

2. Decrease

With a Between Subject design you want to ______ differences between treatments and _______ difference within treatments

What is it called when people are dropping out of a research study?

Attrition

Time-Related threats to internal validity

Maturation

History

Instrumentation

Regression to the mean

Maturation

occurs when natural, internal changes in participants over time are mistaken for the effects of an experimental treatment

History

an external event occurring during a study that can influence the outcome, making it difficult to determine if the results are due to the intervention or the event itself.

Instrumentation

when the measuring tool or method used in a study changes over time, leading to inconsistent data collection

Regression to the mean

it causes extreme scores on a pre-test to naturally move closer to the average on a post-test, making it appear as if a treatment had an effect when it may have had none

Threats related to Previous Experience - Internal Validitiy

Practice

Fatigue

Carry-over

Practice

participants' performance improves on a task due to familiarity from a pre-test or prior experience, not from the experimental intervention

Fatigue

it can cause participants' performance to worsen over time, making it unclear whether changes in behavior are due to the study's independent variable or the participants' exhaustion

Carry-over

the lingering impact of an earlier treatment influences a participant's response to a later treatment, making it difficult to determine if the later effect is due to the new condition or the previous one

Counter-Balancing

systematically varying the order of conditions so that each sequence is presented to at least some participants, or administering the conditions in a different order to different participants to balance out any effects of practice or fatigue. 

Naturalistic

No researcher intervention

The researcher interacts with participants and becomes on of them

Participant-observation